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Welcome to the world of Furoshiki

2008.02.05Furoshiki

furoshiki01.jpgIt is Furoshiki that we can carry anything with by wrapping and use for a long time. People appreciate that Furoshiki is better than bags made of papers or plastic in Japan, because it is very environmental not for wasting natural resources and increasing rubbish.

And the good point is that Furoshiki can express personality or feeling with design and color like a dress.

*We can use furoshikis many times over and they are so environmental
Ms. Wangari Maathai had got the Novel Peace Prize and was the vice minister of environment in Kenya. She is the honorary president of the “MOTTAINAI campaign” protects environment of earth since 2005 years. She was surprised very much when she met the furoshiki at the first time, because she realized it really amazing that the traditional Japanese cloth is useful for protection environment of the earth.
Furoshikis can wrap anything of all different shapes and sizes, even if they are round like a watermelon, or bottle etc.　We can carry them on the hand and the shoulder like a bag, if we fasten them tightly. And we can offer our congratulations to other people by wrapping presents with furoshikis. In addition we can use them as a scarf when it’s cold and as a mat when we sit outdoor. They are so convenient, because we can fold them up small when we don’t use them.

*People could not leave without furoshikis old time
Ordinary people had not been allowed to have bathrooms using fire in their own houses because houses made of wood or papers were easy to catch fire in Japan in the Edo era. They had towels (Tenugui), clothes (Yukata), and wash goods wrapped with furoshikis when went to public baths (Sentoh). And merchants peddled carrying wrapped many goods with furoshikis. In this way, Furoshiki had been necessary for people usually and business.
Furoshiki was so important in the Showa era, too, 30’s about 40~50 years ago. Everyone had furoshikis amount to about 20 sheets in all sizes for wrapping bedclothes in the closet (Oshiire) and carrying all kinds of baggage in home.
But, as convenience stores and department stores had been increased, it had been more natural that people can get bags at the cash registers of shops for free.　 In department stores, people had goods they bought wrapped with fancy and tough paper bags, especially gifts wrapped with beautiful papers, so furoshikis had not been used gradually.
Recently however, furoshikis that we can use many times is to be appreciated again as the important thing because we get to be interested more in the problem of deforestation or garbage before ever.
In some primary schools, children use Furoshiki for wrapping their sweat suits and so on.

*Furoshiki images the tradition of Japan
There are many different colors or designs of Furishiki recently, so we can choose it by our own taste and make it by ourselves. And as many shops sell Furshiki made of the material we can wash at home like cotton or polyester, we are able to use it easily more than before. Also Furoshiki has been more popular among some people as the symbol of the tradition of Japan.
Instead of wrapping papers, some people wrap gifts with Froshiki designed for with their own stylish patterns when they want to give them to someone. And Furoshiki has gotten be used more differently as a tool not only for wrapping or carrying something like a wrap for the lunch box but also for decoration of the room, for example they use it as a blanket on the knees, a mat of the flower bottle, a table cloth and a cover of the tissues case.

*Why called “Furoshiki”?
The birth of cloth wrapping something goes back to the Nara era. In fact the cloth for wrapping dresses has been left at the Shousouin of Tohdaiji in Nara city with other treasures.
When General Yoshimitsu Ashikaga built a large bathroom in the Muromachi era, other servants (Daimyo) used to go to the bathroom and used furoshikis then. They had their kimonos wrapped with furoshikis when taking them off and put them on sitting on the furoshikis after taking a bath. Moreover, as bathrooms were heated by steam like a sauna at that time, hemp cloths were spread over the zone people sit on in the bathrooms. Because people used the cloth as a tool for spreading (Shiku) in the bathroom (Furo), it was called “Furoshiki”.

*Furoshiki used in the court, too
In Japan, lawyers or public prosecutors go to the court with many documents or other baggage wrapping with Furshiki since old times. They have to use very thick dictionaries like a compendium of laws and need various materials, memos, and notebooks and so on in the court. The baggage is too heavy only in itself for people to have large bags with it any more. So they get to use Furoshiki that is so light and slim for carrying the baggage with instead of bags. In addition, they can make the baggage small by folding up and go home without heavy baggage after they submit documents to the court.

*The furoshiki of the department stores
Some famous department stores produce furoshikis and sell them. It will be so environmental, if we buy one furoshiki and carry goods wrapped with it instead of bags made of papers. And as the design of some furoshikis is similar to the wrapping papers or bags, we need not care the looks of it.

*The furoshiki of the world
A cloth like Furoshiki is used for wrapping or carrying something not only in Japan but also in other countries of the world, especially in Asia. In China, the history of Furoshiki is older than Japan. And people use furoshikis, too in other countries, for example Korea, India, Iran, Turkey, Afghanistan and Peru etc.


Various Furoshiki Wrap Styles 1

One piece of fabric can change the way an object looks by things wrapped. You can wrap just about anything.

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Various Furoshiki Wrap sthles 2

Furoshiki can express various different styles. You can create an image that fits the mood or the gift or person to whom you are sending it to

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“Welcome to the world of Furoshiki” will be renewed at the beginning of every month; this running story is quoted from the book “A Complete Guide to Furoshiki” published by Banana Books; http://bananabooks.cc/.


A Complete Guide to Furoshiki

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Text: Etsuko Yamada
She majored in art in college , and became an art director through textile designer and table coordinator. She is proposing a new way of Furoshiki usage and style.
Photo: Kanji Okamoto
Born in Tokyo in 1955. After graduation from Rikkyo University, he trained himself under the architectural photographer, Mr. Tomio Ohashi, and Shigeo Okamoto.

A piece of cloth wrapping one’s life ――Japanese sometimes express Furoshiki thus, Author Yamada, who was born in a founding family of Furoshiki maker in Kyoto, commentate how to use Froshiki and it’s history. A way to tie a basic knot, a traditional style of wrapping, a graceful bottle wrap for wine bottles, a simple wrap alternative to bags is introduced clearly by photographic strip. This is an authorized version described about Furoshiki. See it; at Amazon


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